Our Man in Antigua

the sound of drums echoes up my avenida…#4 and the food stands at La Merced and behind the Cathedral are fired up…the better assortment is behind the Cathedral on 5th Calle…if i hadn’t pigged/porked out on some xlnt baby-back ribs from Epicure this afternoon, I doubt if i could’ve withstood the offerings…’walked by Da Vinci’s new location: chandelier up in the entrance, the lifesize gilded angels hanging here and there…tis coming together nicely..will Christophe across the street send flowers? dos Reilly’s quiet, el gato negro night after night keeping their folks inside and consuming..ocelot visited by a large ‘affinity group’..from where, of what, who knows? Curtis bailed early, going home to rest up for tomorrow night’s ‘open bar..all you can swill from 5-8, celebrating the one year anniversary of a very successful operation(ocelot…did you think i was thinking of Ixnay?)..F2 doing some tables, Alex counting the days til he en famille depart for Florida for a much-awaited vacation plus avoiding the hellish crowds of Semen Satan, coming soon to a town near you(and me)..ran into LM of the ‘Beav, and we got to talk FTF about my schedule for going out there next week(the French ‘teleconference’ is postponed til the following week…i write these travel articles and the publisher has started a ‘live teleconference gig’ with anyone who wants to ask questions of the author(me)..this month’s subject is Nicaragua…published tomorrow..I skype up and they get to ask about whatever i didn’t cover in the article..the price of escorts in Granada? the editor lives in France, hence that connection..’observed something strangeness vis a vis BAC this morning…the ‘stand alone ATM’ in the tienda a few doors up? a motley crew of 4 or 5 and not dressed in Diebold outfits..ripping the wires/guts out of it and then dragging it down to the BAC lobby, where it now resides along side the other three ‘ one armed bandits’..I get the feeling that ‘headquarters’ isn’t quite aware of this branches ‘activities’…just a feeling…so, the $1000 question..is the branch ramping up for Semana Santa and hordes of transactions? and then fade away afterwards? just a question..the drums pound, coming ever closer…is this an extracurricular activity for the schools? o, yeah..i gotta an ‘A’ in kettle drums…good for tranferring credits when you apply for college..graduate with a degree in Boom Boom..’ran into TLGraham earlier, outside Caffe Bourbon..exchanged memories of the early 50’s, radioactivity and how naive we were about nuclear stuff…my old rolex still has radium on the numerals..light it up and it glows in the dark..maybe i do and maybe i don’t..ask ‘her’..no, don’t..damn..i had planned to go by Peter the G’s Ladies Night at El Mirador..maybe catch the fire dancer lighting herself off…looked all over and i couldn’t find a pair of shoes and a matching belt…panty hose ripped..Ladies’ Night…i look like hell in a dress…

is/was that Claudia from Sabe Rico, now working at Angie Angies? gotta go back…she looked familiar..i think i’m needing bifocals..first it was buy sex, now its bifocals…age…sucks except when the ‘experience’ part kicks in..god..there’s an open seat on a chopper trip to el Mirador next week..$499..one day, in/out…if i didn’t hate choppers and wasn’t going to the Beav…no, not El Caminantes patio…the monster mayan ‘dig’ up north..the one underwritten by the Mormon Church..still looking for proof that the Lost Tribe of Israel landed here..the Lamanites or the Nephites..who knows? those folks don’t give up..lotta money and its tax deductible..’did my US taxes today..e-filed and e-accepted by those zany folks at the IRS..if you haven’t done yours, the filing period is extended til the 18th..boom boom goes the band, off in the distance..two more weekends of this…cocktail! now its the bells…ding dong, ding dong..christ..where’s Quasimodo now that we really need him? running the popcorn stand..